Darren Bent arrived at Villa Park for a medical on Monday afternoon, just a day after tabling a transfer request at Sunderland. The £18 million spent on the 27-year-old striker, and the £6 million paid for Lyon midfielder Jean Makoun, brings Aston Villa’s January spending to £24 million, in addition to the loan acquisition of Kyle Walker. Oh, to know what Martin O’Neill is thinking right about now.

Aston Villa’s on-field performances provoke so much head scratching it’s enough to give one a rash. An embarrassing 4-0 trouncing at Manchester City; a gutsy, 3-3 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Of course, there are no shortage of questions off the field, either. What has become of Stephen Ireland? Does the club have any sort of transfer strategy? When did Robert Pires become Gerard Houllier’s press officer?

Kevin Hughes spent the best part of ten years working and writing for the football magazine Match; once (sort of) inspiring David Beckham to copy his shaved-hair look, getting lost in Paris after the 1998 France v Croatia World Cup semi-final and other such nonsense. As Deputy Editor, he launched and established Sport, the London-based free weekly magazine, before moving on to become a consumer magazine publisher, a position he holds today. Introduced to Villa by his father and grandfather, he attended his first ever match at Villa Park as a seven-year-old in 1982… and has suffered almost constant disappointment since. You can follow him on twitter @KevHughesie